ANCHORAGE — The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Friday released a revised environmental review of proposed petroleum development in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, a step that could lead to a resumption of Arctic Ocean drilling in 2015.

ANCHORAGE — Scientists researching the severe decline in Alaska’s Steller sea lion population have a fingered a new possible suspect for the drop: Pacific sleeper sharks, a species previously thought of as a scavenger and fish-eater.

A study led by Oregon State University researcher Markus Horning concludes that three juvenile sea lions tracked with implanted data transmitters were killed by a cold-blooded predator, and the likely culprits were sleeper sharks, which can grow to 20 feet long.

ANCHORAGE — A federal agency is considering lethal measures to protect an Alaska island refuge from an invasive species — caribou.

The big game animals are a popular target for Alaska hunters. The state annually pays to kill hundreds of wolves and bears to enhance moose and caribou populations. But caribou are an unwelcome, unnatural presence in a wilderness refuge in the central Aleutian Islands.

ANCHORAGE — A federal agency is considering lethal measures to protect an Alaska island refuge from an invasive species — caribou.

The big game animals are a popular target for Alaska hunters. The state annually pays to kill hundreds of wolves and bears to enhance moose and caribou populations. But caribou are an unwelcome, unnatural presence in a wilderness refuge in the central Aleutian Islands.

ANCHORAGE — A 28-year-old Anchorage man told his brother he had strangled his girlfriend, and when his brother said he intended to call police, the man drove off with the body in the back seat of his car, police said Thursday.

David Joseph Thomas a short time later called police himself and was found with the car and the body of Linda Anne Martz Bower, 19, in the parking lot of a pharmacy.

He was charged with first- and second-degree murder and booked into the Anchorage Jail early Thursday morning, said police spokeswoman Anita Shell.

ANCHORAGE — A woman at the center of a tobacco-tax conspiracy that avoided paying municipal tax on more than 12.5 million cigarettes has pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, money laundering and making false statements.

Sun Sims will forfeit more than $1.2 million as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors announced at a change-of-plea hearing on Friday.

The government will recommend a sentence of five years’ probation when she is sentenced Nov. 25. She could also be required to make a restitution payment.

ANCHORAGE — A permit covering storm-water runoff does not apply to coal falling from a conveyor belt into Resurrection Bay at Seward, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Tim Burgess and ruled that coal dropped into the ocean by the Alaska Railroad at its Seward Coal Loading Facility would violate the federal Clean Water Act.